Sainsbury's British Championships and World Championship Trials

 

WGEL performances at the Sainsbury's British Championships and World Championship Trials at Birmingham over the weekend were led by national titles for Tiffany Porter and Andy Frost. There were silver medals for Shana Cox and Tom Norman, several other athletes made finals, and there were other useful performances in the qualifying rounds.

Tiffany Porter went into the British Championships a clear favourite having shown impressive form on the Grand Prix circuit around Europe the past few weeks. That form continued as she won the 100mH in near perfect conditions on Saturday in a quick 12.68 secs (+0.6). In the heats, Stephanie Gaynor just missed out on qualifying for teh final as she placed 2nd in 13.87 secs (+0.4), If Tiffany's title was expected, Andy Frost's was less so. A former British number one, Andy went into the competition ranked 7th on paper, but with a good series he produced his second best ever throw of 72.28m to take the title, and move to 3rd on this year's UK lists. The man who tops that list with 74.46m, Woodford's Mark Dry struggled on the day, and recorded only one valid mark of 66.95m for 6th, with all five other efforts, being released slightly wide into the side netting of the cage. In the women's hammer, HCA member Myra Perkins placed 8th with 54.44m. Shana Cox's silver medal came in a good women's 400m and she showed good form under pressure in the final straight to record a season's best of 51.76sesc for 2nd. Tom Norman was a very good second in the men's discus. In a competition where many threw below their best, Tom put together a solid series to place 2nd with 54.28m. Many times past winner, Emeka Udechuku was 6th with 52.07m, and Chris Linque placed 10th with a below par 46.35m. In the shot, Anthony Oshodi placed 6th with 15.56m, but would have been encouraged by a no-throw that just edged the sector that wasnot far short of 17m. Behind Anthony U/20 Youcef Zatat recorded a personal best with the senior implement to place 7th with 15.46m, whilst HCA member Scott Lincoln was 4th with 16.19m. Completing the field event news, Ezekiel Ewulo was 5th in the long jump with 7.62m (+0.5). In the women's event Kitty Eleyae was 10th with 5.91m whilst in the women's triple jump, Zainab Ceesay only recorded one valid jump of 12.11m which placed her 11th.

On the track, Tara Bird comfortably progressed through to the final of the women's 800m but was disappointed with 6th place in the final with 2m05.13 secs. In those heats, Megan Edwards recorded 2m09.44 secs. In the men's 800m heats, Jordan Donnelly recorded 1m52.04 secs for 6th in the first heat, with Jon Cook, 3rd in the 3rd heat with 1m52.87 secs. The previous evening Jon had recorded 3m46.08 secs in the 1500m heats, and Tom Phillips 3m51.67 secs, but Alex Cornwell went agonisingly close to making the final, just missing out by 3/100ths with 3m44.11 secs. In the men's 200m Jordan Kirby-Polidore qualified impressively from his heat with 20.87 secs (+1.5), but in the final, was left on his blocks, and ended up 7th with 21.01 secs w (+2.9). In the heats of the women's 200m, Elaine O'Neil recorded a season's best to place 4th with 24.31 secs (+0.9). Another sprinting well and also recording a season's best was Eugene Ayanful who progressed through the 100m semi-final where he placed 5th with 10.64 secs (+1.5). HCA man Ryan McKinlay was only just outside his personal best in the 3000m s/ch as he placed 6th with 9m07.08 secs, a season's best. Another HCA memeber, Daniel Gardner, just about to head off to tehg European Junior Championships showed encouraging form in the Pole Vault as he set an outdoor personal best, equalling his best everset indoors of 5.20m to place fourth.